Computer-assisted translation

Computer-assisted translation, computer-aided translation or CAT is a form of language

translation in which a human translator uses computer software to support and facilitate the
translation process.
Computer-assisted translation is sometimes called machine-assisted, or machine-aided, translation
(not to be confused with machine translation).

Overview
The automatic machine translation systems available today are not able to produce high-quality
translations unaided: their output must be edited by a human to correct errors and improve the
quality of translation. Computer-assisted translation (CAT) incorporates that manual editing stage
into the software, making translation an interactive process between human and computer. [1]
Some advanced computer-assisted translation solutions include controlled machine translation (MT).
Higher priced MT modules generally provide a more complex set of tools available to the translator,
which may include terminology management features and various other linguistic tools and utilities.
Carefully customized user dictionaries based on correct terminology significantly improve the
accuracy of MT, and as a result, aim at increasing the efficiency of the entire translation process.

Range of tools
Computer-assisted translation is a broad and imprecise term covering a range of tools, from the fairly
simple to the complicated. These can include:

Spell checkers, either built into word processing software, or add-on programs
Grammar checkers, again either built into word processing software, or add-on programs
Terminology managers, which allow translators to manage their own terminology bank in an
electronic form. This can range from a simple table created in the translator's word processing
software or spreadsheet, a database created in a program such as FileMaker Pro or, for more
robust (and more expensive) solutions, specialized software packages such as SDL MultiTerm,
LogiTerm, Termex, etc.
Electronic dictionaries, either unilingual or bilingual
Terminology databases, either on the host computer or accessible through the Internet, such
as TERMIUM Plus or Grand dictionnaire terminologique from the Office qubcois de la langue
franaise
Full-text search tools (or indexers), which allow the user to query already translated texts or
reference documents of various kinds. Some such indexers are ISYS Search Software, dtSearch
Desktop and Naturel
Concordancers, which are programs that retrieve instances of a word or an expression and their
respective context in a monolingual, bilingual or multilingual corpus, such as a bitext or a
translation memory
Bitext aligners: tools that align a source text and its translation which can then be analyzed using
a full-text search tool or a concordancer
Project management software that allows linguists to structure complex translation projects,
assign the various tasks to different people, and track the progress of each of these tasks
Translation memory tools (TM tools), consisting of a database of text segments in a source
language and their translations in one or more target languages.

Concepts
Translation memory software
Translation memory programs store previously translated source texts and their equivalent target
texts in a database and retrieve related segments during the translation of new texts.
Such programs split the source text into manageable units known as "segments". A source-text
sentence or sentence-like unit (headings, titles or elements in a list) may be considered a segment,
or texts may be segmented into larger units such as paragraphs or small ones, such as clauses. As
the translator works through a document, the software displays each source segment in turn and
provides a previous translation for re-use, if the program finds a matching source segment in its
database. If it does not, the program allows the translator to enter a translation for the new segment.
After the translation for a segment is completed, the program stores the new translation and moves

on to the next segment. In the dominant paradigm, the translation memory, in principle, is a simple
database of fields containing the source language segment, the translation of the segment, and
other information such as segment creation date, last access, translator name, and so on. Another
translation memory approach does not involve the creation of a database, relying on aligned
reference documents instead.
Some translation memory programs function as standalone environments, while others function as
an add-on or macro to commercially available word-processing or other business software programs.
Add-on programs allow source documents from other formats, such as desktop publishing
files, spreadsheets, or HTML code, to be handled using the TM program.

Language search-engine software

New to the translation industry, Language search-engine software is typically an Internet-based
system that works similarly to Internet search engines. Rather than searching the Internet, however,
a language search engine searches a large repository of Translation Memories to find previously
translated sentence fragments, phrases, whole sentences, even complete paragraphs that match
source document segments.
Language search engines are designed to leverage modern search technology to conduct searches
based on the source words in context to ensure that the search results match the meaning of the
source segments. Like traditional TM tools, the value of a language search engine rests heavily on
the Translation Memory repository it searches against.

Terminology management software[edit]

Terminology management software provides the translator a means of automatically searching a
given terminology database for terms appearing in a document, either by automatically displaying
terms in the translation memory software interface window or through the use of hot keys to view the
entry in the terminology database. Some programs have other hotkey combinations allowing the
translator to add new terminology pairs to the terminology database on the fly during translation.
Some of the more advanced systems enable translators to check, either interactively or in batch
mode, if the correct source/target term combination has been used within and across the translation
memory segments in a given project. Independent terminology management systems also exist that
can provide workflow functionality, visual taxonomy, work as a type of term checker (similar to spell
checker, terms that have not been used correctly are flagged) and can support other types of
multilingual term facet classifications such as pictures, videos, or sound. [2]

Alignment software
Alignment programs take completed translations, divide both source and target texts into segments,
and attempt to determine which segments belong together in order to build atranslation memory or
other reference resource with the content. Many alignment programs allow translators to manually
realign mismatched segments. The resulting bitext alignment can then be imported into a translation
memory program for future translations or used as a reference document.

Interactive machine translation

Interactive machine translation is a paradigm in which the automatic system attempts to predict the
translation the human translator is going to produce by suggesting translation hypotheses. These
hypotheses may either be the complete sentence, or the part of the sentence that is yet to be
translated.

Crowd translation
Crowd-assisted translation refers to employing large numbers of bilingual human translators who
collaborate via social media. When Facebook needed to translate a large body of existing English
language text on its graphical user interfaces, the company made use of the voluntary help of its
already-existing bilingual user base, organized byYishan Wong.

Some notable CAT tools

The list below includes only some of the existent and available software. It is not exhaustive and is
only intended to be taken as example, not as a complete reference. Several relevant tools are
missing in the list.

Name

Across
Language
Server[3]

Dj Vu[4]

Supported File Formats

OS

Microsoft Word (DOC, DOT,

DOCX, and DOCM files),
Microsoft Excel (XLS files, and
XLSX and XLSM files), Microsoft
PowerPoint (PPT and PPS files as
well as PPTX, PPSX, and PPTM
files), Rich Text Format1 (RTF
files), text files (TXT files), TeX
(TEX files), HTML, XHTML,
XML, SGML, Adobe FrameMaker
(in MIF format), Adobe InDesign
(IDML files, in INX exchange
format) Adobe InCopy (INCX
format), BroadVision QuickSilver
(ILDOC files), QuarkXPress (export
to XTG format, re-import upon
translation), Executable files (EXE
files); Dynamic Link Library (DLL
files), Resource Script files (RC,
RC2, and DLL files), .NET RESX
files (RESX files), .NET
Windows
RESOURCE files (RESOURCE
files), .NET Satellite Assemblies
(RESOURCE.DLL files), Windows
Installer (MSI files), configuration
files (INI files), OLE Control,
extensions (OCX files), Screen
Saver (SCR files), Control Panel
Extensions (CPL files), National
Language Support (NLS files,
Portable Object (PO files), MC files
(Message Compiler), PROPERTIES
files (Java Property), Android:
(string XML files with HTML
markup), iOS (text-based strings
files (UTF-8 or UTF-16)),
BlackBerry (ANSI-based text files
in rrc format), XML Localization
Interchange (XLIFF or XLF),
Drawing Interchange Format (DXF
files)

Microsoft Office (Word, Excel,

Powerpoint, also embedded objects,
and Access), Help Contents (CNT),
FrameMaker (MIF), PageMaker,
QuarkXPress, QuickSilver/Interleaf
ASCII, Java Properties (.properties),
HTML, HTML Help, XML, RC,
C/Java/C++, IBM TM/2, Trados
Windows
Workbench, Trados BIF (old
TagEditor), Trados TagEditor,
JavaScript, VBScript, ODBC, TMX,
EBU, InDesign (TXT, ITD, INX,
IDML), GNU GetText (PO/POT),
OpenOffice, OpenDocument SDLX
(ITD), ResX, XLIFF (XLF, XLIF,
XLIFF, MQXLIFF, unsegmented

Language

Widget
tool

License

Proprietary

Proprietary

Name

Supported File Formats

OS

Language

Widget
tool

License

and segmented SDLXLIFF), Visio

(VDX), PDF, Transit NXT PPF,
WordFast Pro TXML

Text ANSI / ASCII / Unicode for

Windows, Text for Apple
Macintosh, HTML, XML
(ASP.NET, ASP, JSP, XSL),
Java platform / Java
SGML, MS Word for Windows, MS
Excel, MS PowerPoint, RTF, RC,
Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe
InDesign

Apache
License
2.0

PO

POSIX

GTK+

GNU
General
Public
License

Lokalize

Gettext PO, Qt ts, XLIFF, TMX

Crossplatform

Qt

GNU
General
Public
License

MateCat

doc, dot, docx, dotx, docm, dotm,

pdf, xls, xlt, xlsm, xlsx, xltx, pot,
pps, ppt, potm, potx, ppsm, ppsx,
pptm,pptx, odp, ods, odt, sxw, sxc,
sxl, txt, csv, xml, rtf, htm, html,
xhtml, xml, xliff, sdlxliff, tmx, ttx,
itd, xlf, mif, inx, idml, icml, xtg, tag,
xml, dita, properties, rc, resx, sgml,
sgm

web
based
(supports
Safari
and
Chrome)

memoQ[5]

.MIF, InDesign formats (.INDD,

.INX, .IDML), .XML, .DITA,
.XML, .MM, .PO, .HTML, .HMT,
.SHT, .properties, .DOC, .RTF,
.BAK, .DOT, .DOCX, .XLS, .XML,
.XLSX, .XLSM, .XLS, .XLT, .PPT,
.PPS, .POT, .PPF, .PPTX, .PPSX,
.POTX, .SLDX, .VDX, .HHC,
.HHK, .ODT, .ODF, .TXT, .INF,
.INI, .REG, .PDF, .SVG, .SDLPPX,
.TTX, .SDLXLIFF, .TMX, .TXML,
.RESX, .XLF, .XLIF, .XLIFF,
XLIFF:doc

Windows

Proprietary

Java platform / Java

Proprietary

GlobalSight

gtranslator

MemSource

.doc, .docx, .rtf, .ppt, .pptx, .xls,

.xlsx, .htm, .html, .properties, .tmx,
.ttx, .xhtm, .xhtml, .xml, .dita,

C++

PHP

GNU
Lesser
General
Public
License

Name

Supported File Formats

OS

Language

Widget
tool

License

.ditamap, .xliff, .sdlxliff, .txt, .csv,

.resx, .idml, .mif

MetaTexis

Microsoft Word, Excel and

Powerpoint, all kinds of text
formats, XML, HTML, XLIFF,
RTF, TRADOS Studio
(SDLXLIFF), TagEditor (TTX),
POT/PO, Manual Maker, several
further formats...

OmegaT

Plain text, HTML, XHTML,

StarOffice, OpenOffice.org,
OpenDocument (ODF), MS Office
Open XML, Help & Manual,
HTML Help Compiler (HCC),
LaTeX, DokuWiki, QuarkXPress
CopyFlow Gold, DocBook, Android
Resource, Java Properties, Typo3
LocManager, Mozilla DTD,
Windows RC, WiX, ResX, INI
files, XLIFF, PO, SubRip Subtitles,
SVG Images

Java platform / Java

GNU
General
Public
License

Open
Language
Tools

XLIFF, HTML/XHTML, XML,

DocBook SGML, ASCII,
StarOffice/OpenOffice/ODF, PO,
.properties, .java (ResourceBundle),
.msg/.tmsg (catgets)

Java platform / Java

CDDL

Poedit

PO

Crossplatform

Pootle

PO, XLIFF, OpenOffice GSI files

(.sdf), TMX, TBX, Java Properties,
DTD, CSV, HTML, XHTML, Plain
Text

Crossplatform

SDL Trados

Features four translation

environments: dedicated TagEditor,
MSWord Interface, SDLX, the
integrated interface SDL Trados
Studio 2014. Filters for translating
with Trados Studio or TagEditor
available: Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, OpenOffice, InDesign,
QuarkXPress, PageMaker, Interleaf,
Framemaker, HTML, SGML, XML,
SVG, Xliff, Legacy Trados files
TTX, ITD, Word Bilingual,
Wordfast, MemoQ .... Includes SDL

Microsoft
Office
Word
add-in

Windows

Proprietary

C++

Python

GTK+

MIT
License

Web

GNU
General
Public
License

Proprietary

Name

Supported File Formats

OS

Language

Widget
tool

License

C#

Web

Proprietary

MultiTerm for terminology

management and Project
Management Dashboard for
automating tasks and tracking.

SmartCAT

Text documents: DOCX, DOC,

TXT, RTF. PowerPoint
presentations: PPTX, PPSX, PPT,
PPS. Excel spreadsheets: XLSX,
XLS. Scanned documents and
images: PDF, JPG, TIFF, BMP,
PNG, GIF, DJVU and more. HTML
pages: HTML, HTM. OpenOffice
files: ODP, ODS. Resource files:
RESX. Bilingual files: TTX.
Industry-standard formats:
SDLXLIFF, XLF, XLIFF, TMX.
HTML pages: HTML, HTM.
InDesign CS4 Markup: IDML.

Crossplatform

Virtaal

XLIFF, PO and MO, TMX, TBX,

Wordfast TM, Qt ts
Many others via converters in
the Translate Toolkit

Crossplatform

MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint (all

versions), PDF, SGML, HTML,
WordfastPRO
XML, InDesign, FrameMaker,
tagged documents, XLIFF, etc.

XTM[6]

Microsoft Office (doc,docx,xls,xlsx,

xlsx, ppt,pptx), Microsoft Visio
(vdx), Open Office ( sxw, odt, ods,
odp ), FrameMaker (MIF), Adobe
InDesign ( idml), Adobe Illustrator
(fxg, svg), Adobe Photoshop,
Wordfast, PDF, Sdf, Svg, Yml,
Yalm, iPhone apps ( strings ), Php,
Xml, Xhtml, Xht, Xlf, Xliff,
Sdlxliff, Trados (ttx) Java Properties
(.properties), HTML, HTM, Rtf,
Po/pot, DIta, Asp, Aspx, Txt, Tpl,
Resx, Ini, Json

Python

GTK+

GNU
General
Public
License

Java platform / Java

Proprietary

Crossplatform

Proprietary

According to a 2006 survey undertaken by Imperial College of 874 translation professionals from 54
countries, primary tool usage was reported as follows: Trados (35%),Wordfast (17%), Dj Vu
(16%), SDL Trados 2006 (15%), SDLX (4%), STAR Transit (3%), OmegaT (3%), others (7%).[7]